HOW TO SAVE
A DEAD FRIEND
a film by Marusya Syroechkovskaya
FEATURE PRESENTATION
JUNE 24, 2023 •7 PM
@ LIGHT HOUSE ARTS CENTRE
(1800 ARGYLE STREET, HALIFAX)
2022 / SWEDEN, NORWAY, FRANCE, GERMANY/ 103 mins
How to Save a Dead Friend is the miraculous debut doc from Marusya Syroechkovskaya, lovingly crafted from 12 years of home videos of her life with husband Kimi Morev—footage she wasn’t sure would become a film until they turned out to be the final years of his life.
With influences ranging from Harmony Korine, witch house, and Windows Movie Maker, How to Save a Dead Friend is a tenacious document of addiction, isolation and hopeless youth in Putin’s Russia.
—Evan Bower
TRAILER
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Marusya Syroechkovskaya
Marusya Syroechkovskaya is a Moscow-born award-winning filmmaker and visual artist, who had to flee Russia as the March 2022 crackdown on opposition voices increased.
Marusya studied filmmaking at the School for Documentary Film in Moscow under professor Marina Razbezhkina and received her MA in Film Directing at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow (graduated with honors).
Her student short, Exploration of Confinement received a Jury Award at the New Orleans Film Festival 2013 and qualified for the 2013 Academy Awards. It was also selected for the 35th Moscow International Film Festival, the Message to Man International Film Festival 2013, Tenerife Shorts Film Festival 2014, and a number of other international film festivals.
Her training includes workshops such as Ex Oriente Film, Flahertiana, and IDFAcademy. Marusya is a 2015 Nipkow Program Fellow (Berlin, Germany).